Reply by Brad_Nailor

I am an AutoCAD drafter by profession, and I am employed by a company, but I do AutoCAD and Sketchup design, and rendering as a side business. When I start a project for somebody I might hand sketch some ideas and discuss design elements with them for free, but once I sit down at my computer and start modeling or drafting, I get $25 per hour. I am willing to do as many design changes/looks as the customer wants but I don’t work for free and I let them know that up front. This protects me and the customer, and it cuts down on frivolous design changes by the customer. If I misunderstood their needs or made a mistake I wont charge for the time to fix these errors, but if they want to see several photo real renders showing several different finishes, from all different angles, and nite and day shots showing sun position and shadows…they are paying for that stuff. As much as I like to model and draw, I don’t work for free. This way they own the drawings, and the designs and they can take it to whomever they want to use for fabrication. And I usually draw a very loose line as to how many hours I charge…I don’t gouge people for every minute I am working.